Property Taxes by Town in Greater Portland, Maine: What You Actually Pay
Here is the trap that catches almost everyone shopping for a house around Portland. You pull up two towns, see that one has a mill rate of 11 and the other has a mill rate of 25, and you cross the second one off the list. You just eliminated a town that might tax you less than the one you kept.
The mill rate is the number every real estate listing quotes and the number that tells you the least on its own. A town's tax rate only means something when you pair it with how that town values property, and Greater Portland towns value property very differently. Some assess homes at full market price. One assesses them at 57 cents on the dollar. Until you correct for that, you are comparing numbers that are not on the same scale.
This page fixes that. Every figure below was checked in July 2026 against the town's own assessor, the county regional assessing office, or a dated news report, not a scraped aggregator. Where a town is mid-revaluation and its numbers are about to move, we say so.
The one thing you have to understand first: mill rate times ratio
A mill rate is dollars of tax per 1,000 dollars of assessed value. A home assessed at 400,000 in a town with a mill rate of 12 owes 4,800 a year before exemptions.
The catch is the word assessed. Maine towns are supposed to value property at 100 percent of market value, but assessments drift as the market climbs, and towns only reset them with a townwide revaluation every several years. A town that has not revalued in a decade might have your 500,000 house on the books at 300,000. Its assessments run at 60 percent of true value, so it needs a much higher mill rate to raise the same money. The state calls that percentage the certified ratio, and every assessor publishes it.
To compare two towns honestly, multiply the mill rate by the certified ratio. That gives you the effective rate: the tax you actually pay per 1,000 dollars of what your home is really worth. It is the only number that is apples to apples across town lines, and it is the number the listing never shows you.
The table: Greater Portland towns, fiscal year 2026
Every town below runs a July-to-June fiscal year, so these are the rates in force for the 2025 to 2026 year, committed in the late summer and fall of 2025. The effective rate is the mill rate adjusted by each town's certified ratio.
| Town | Mill rate | Certified ratio | Effective rate on market value | Last revaluation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarborough | 11.33 | 100% | about 11.33 | 2024 |
| Cape Elizabeth | 11.73 | 100% | about 11.73 | 2024 to 2025 |
| Portland | 11.98 | 100% | about 11.98 | 2025 |
| Falmouth | 13.85 | 96% | about 13.30 | 2022 |
| South Portland | 13.65 | near 100% | about 13.65 | 2024 |
| Yarmouth | 14.62 | near 100% | about 14.62 | 2025 |
| Cumberland | 25.18 | 57% | about 14.35 | before 2026 |
Read the first column and the last real column against each other and the whole point of this page falls out. By mill rate, Cumberland at 25.18 looks like it taxes more than double Scarborough at 11.33. On an effective basis, Cumberland is only about a quarter higher, because it assesses homes at 57 percent of what they sell for. The scary sticker number is mostly an artifact of stale assessments, not a punishing tax burden. Cumberland has a townwide revaluation underway that will raise assessed values toward market and, almost certainly, drop that 25.18 mill rate hard. The tax bills will not fall with it; that is the part homeowners always find out the hard way.
What this means for your actual bill
Take a house that would sell for 600,000 today and run it through each town's effective rate, before any exemptions:
- Scarborough: about 6,800 a year
- Cape Elizabeth: about 7,000
- Portland: about 7,200
- Falmouth: about 8,000
- South Portland: about 8,200
- Cumberland: about 8,600
- Yarmouth: about 8,800
The spread from the cheapest to the most expensive town on the same 600,000 house is roughly 2,000 dollars a year. That is real money, but it is a fraction of the gap the raw mill rates imply, and it does not line up with the mill rate ranking at all. The town with the highest sticker rate is not the town with the highest bill.
Two things in that list surprise people. First, the coastal towns with the biggest reputations for money, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough, sit at the bottom of the effective rate, not the top. A town full of expensive homes spreads its budget across a huge tax base, so each owner's rate can stay low. Second, Yarmouth, which just revalued and now assesses at close to full market value, carries the highest effective rate in the group. Its recent revaluation is exactly why: the assessments caught up to the market, and the rate you pay is honest and current rather than flattered by old numbers.
Why a low mill rate can still mean a higher bill after a revaluation
Portland is the clean example. In its 2025 revaluation, the city's median residential assessment jumped about 43 percent, and the mill rate dropped from 15.01 to 11.98. A homeowner who saw only the falling mill rate and assumed a smaller bill was wrong. The rate fell because the value it multiplies rose. This is the single most misread event in Maine property taxes: a revaluation almost never lowers the total the town collects, it just redistributes it, and if your home appreciated faster than the town average, your share went up even as the mill rate went down.
So when a listing brags that a town "lowered its tax rate," check whether it just revalued. A rate cut on the heels of a revaluation is usually a wash or worse for the owner of a fast-appreciating home. For the same reason, the towns still coasting on old assessments, like Cumberland before its current revaluation, are living on borrowed time; the reset is coming, and the headline rate will tumble while the dollars owed hold or climb.
The exemption almost everyone forgets
Every Maine primary residence qualifies for the Homestead Exemption, which knocks up to 25,000 dollars off your home's taxable value once you have owned a Maine home for at least 12 months before April 1. On a 12 to 14 dollar effective rate that is roughly 300 to 350 dollars off your bill every year. It is not automatic. You file a short form with the assessor once, and it carries forward. A surprising number of new owners never file it, and leave that money on the table every single year. If you bought recently and cannot remember filing, call your assessor and ask.
Veterans and legally blind owners qualify for additional exemptions, and most towns run a senior or income-based relief program on top of the state ones. Those are worth a call to the assessing office, not an assumption.
For the wider picture of what a move here costs beyond the tax bill, see our Portland cost of living breakdown, and for the town-by-town tradeoffs on commute and housing, the honest Portland relocation guide and the guide to Falmouth.
How to check a specific house before you buy
Do not trust the tax figure on a listing, which is often last year's bill on last year's assessment. Do this instead. Pull the town's current mill rate and certified ratio from the assessor's page. Look up the specific property's assessed value in the town's online database. Multiply assessed value by the mill rate and divide by 1,000 for the current bill. Then ask the agent one question that matters more than the number: when did this town last revalue, and is another revaluation scheduled. A house in a town about to reset its assessments is a house whose tax bill you cannot yet see.
FAQ
Which Greater Portland town has the lowest property taxes?
On an effective basis for fiscal year 2026, Scarborough is the lowest of the core towns at about 11.33 dollars per 1,000 of market value, just under Cape Elizabeth at 11.73 and Portland at 11.98. These three assess at full market value, so their mill rate and their effective rate are the same. Towns with lower sticker mill rates are not automatically cheaper once you correct for how they assess.
Why is Cumberland's mill rate so much higher than everyone else's?
Because Cumberland assesses property at only about 57 percent of market value, so it needs a mill rate of 25.18 to raise what a full-value town raises at around 14. Its effective rate, about 14.35 dollars per 1,000 of true value, is close to Yarmouth's and Falmouth's, not double anyone's. A townwide revaluation is underway that will raise assessed values and drop the headline mill rate, though it will not lower the total tax collected.
What is a certified ratio and where do I find it?
The certified ratio is the percentage of true market value at which a town currently assesses property, published every year by the town assessor. Cape Elizabeth, Portland, and Scarborough are at 100 percent after recent revaluations; Falmouth is at 96 percent; Cumberland is at 57 percent. You find it on the town's assessing or general tax information page, usually next to the mill rate and the commitment date.
Does a lower mill rate mean a lower tax bill?
No. A mill rate is only half the equation; the other half is how the town values your home. A town that just revalued can post a much lower mill rate while your bill rises, because the value the rate multiplies went up. Portland's 2025 revaluation dropped the rate from 15.01 to 11.98 while median assessments rose about 43 percent. Always pair the mill rate with the certified ratio before comparing towns.
How much can the Homestead Exemption save me?
The Maine Homestead Exemption removes up to 25,000 dollars from the taxable value of your primary residence after you have owned a Maine home for at least 12 months before April 1. At a typical Greater Portland effective rate of 12 to 14 dollars per 1,000, that is roughly 300 to 350 dollars off your annual bill. You must file a one-time application with your town assessor; it is not applied automatically.
Are these rates going to change soon?
Yes, and in a predictable direction for two towns. Cumberland is revaluing now, which will raise its assessed values and cut its 25.18 mill rate sharply. Every town also sets a new mill rate each summer when it commits the fiscal year's taxes, so the exact figures shift annually even without a revaluation. Confirm the current rate and ratio on the assessor's page before you rely on any number here.